AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
After six weeks and more than 100 matches, the World Cup comes to an end today. Defending champion Argentina will face off against powerhouse Spain this afternoon in the final. Since the tournament began, NPR's Jasmine Garsd has been traveling the country, going to games, talking to fans, really living the life. And she joins us now. Jasmine, welcome.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.
RASCOE: So, Jasmine, let's talk about this final. Do you have a prediction?
GARSD: Well, you know what I think is really exciting? I've been following both these teams closely, and I cannot predict what's going to happen today. Both teams have been playing so well. But let me give you some thoughts. Argentina are the defending champions. They're led by international superstar Lionel Messi. He's considered one of the best players in the world. The weak spot is they tend to kind of go on cruise mode during the first half of the game, and then they wake up during the second half. Here is Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni speaking on Friday at a press conference.
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LIONEL SCALONI: (Non-English language spoken).
GARSD: And what he's saying is the team analyzed the entire road to get this far, all of their rivals, and at the same time, it's important not to overanalyze and psyche themselves out.
RASCOE: OK. So - well, that's a political answer for you on who's going to win, but I'll accept that.
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RASCOE: So Argentina is saying they're trying not to overanalyze. Let's talk a bit about Spain. What should we expect from them?
GARSD: Yeah. What a team. Spain has quietly played an excellent game throughout the championship. They're young. They're hungry. They have this rising 19-year-old superstar, Lamine Yamal. And their defense has been truly stunning. They have given up just one goal in this entire tournament, in seven games, which is remarkable. And if they win and don't give another goal up during today's game, that's going to be a record for a winner. But something has to give, right? I mean, so basically what this is is Argentina, an offensive powerhouse, and Spain, a defensive powerhouse, who have also proven they can score.
Now, I want to give you one more fun fact. Spain won the last women's World Cup. So if the men's team wins today, it would be the first time a country has two World Cup titles simultaneously. Ayesha, this is going to be a heart-stopper of a game.
RASCOE: OK, a heart-stopper and a possibly breathless game - weather conditions have been not so great, right?
GARSD: Oh, yeah. The heat, of course, has been the major issue throughout this whole tournament. You have players who've been performing in heat indexes sometimes above 100 degrees. But also right now here in New York and in New Jersey, we've been getting a lot of smoke from the Canadian forest fires. I mean, the city's really been under a blanket of heavy smoke for the last few days. It's been bad enough that in the Midwest and Northeast that an MLS game - a soccer game - was canceled in Chicago this week. Now, today, it feels better. It feels a lot better after we got some severe thunderstorms last night. It isn't ideal, but the game is still on.
RASCOE: Also notable about this game is that President Trump is going to be at it. Tell me more.
GARSD: Well, not only is he going to be at it - FIFA, which is soccer's ruling body, has said President Trump will be presenting the trophy. Now, I've heard people say this is unprecedented, and it's very unusual. That's not true. So at the last World Cup in Qatar, the trophy was presented by the emir, by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. King Juan Carlos of Spain handed the World Cup to Italy in 1982. In 1966, England was given the trophy by Queen Elizabeth II.
Now, having said that, one of the great controversies of this cup has been that - President Trump's involvement in the tournament. The - you know, he now famously has called FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review a red card given to Folarin Balogun of the United States. That's unusual.
RASCOE: Jasmine Garsd has been covering the World Cup for NPR. She joined us from New York. Thank you so much.
GARSD: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF NU GENEA'S "DISCO SOLE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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